Saturday, December 6, 2014

Saturday Step By Step with Rebecca

Hello and welcome. Today I'm presenting a Step By Step for Frilly and Funkie. Searching through my stores of goodies, I compiled a tray of supplies that I've been itching to play with and this is what I made…

My inspiration were some sweet little decorations made by the talented Karen Valentine. I finally saw a use for my old, too fussy (for a busy cook), individual tartlet pans on her blog. I made a mental note that has managed to stay with me! I assembled different sizes of wooden spools, Tim Holtz bottle trees, snippets of venice lace, distress glitter, seam binding and metal, filagree embellishments…

While it was my intention to stick to a palette of creams, burlap tans and white, these red berries and a length of baby blue seam bindings were irresistible!…

The tree (the edges of the branches touched with white gesso) stands on a metal, floral ring, painted white in a shabby way (you can see it peeking out from under the seam binding bow). It is adhered to a wooden spool that has been dressed up with two layers of venice lace. The spool rests on a white cotton, crocheted floral doily and the whole tower is supported by a very small tart tin…

The next little tower has a tree dressed up with some white gesso, touched to the ends of it's branches and some aurora crystal beads, glued all around. It rests on a taller spool with some wide, draping venice lace cascading down. A ring of silver tinsel twine sits under the tree's branches. The star was die cut from a cereal box and then coated in glue and sprinkled liberally with 'pumice stone' glitter, which I adore and which trails through my house and makes me smile. The upturned tart tin is capped by a circular, filagree ornament that was also painted white, but this time I bent the edges down around the tin, forming a filagree cap…

I love the look of this little tree. It was quick to swipe the white paint onto the branches and then to dab dots of glue, pressing the beads onto the tree…

This tree was coated in mica flakes for a different look and is elevated by adhering the base of another tree that I removed with pliers (you will see what happened to that base-less tree in another post!)…

Both trees were treated to some white gesso on the tips of their branches. Then, glitter was applied to a metal snowflake. I left the center untreated…

In a rather silly whimsical way, I placed this little tree on the glittering snowflake and the largest tin…

The base(s) of the tree were wrapped with a strip of sheet music. The wood that showed under the tree was painted with glue and then sprinkled liberally with rock candy distress glitter. I piled it on to look like a little mound of snow. The blueish tinge that you can see in the photo below disappeared after it dried. A band of silver tinsel twine sits at the join of the snowflake and tree base...

I hope this sparks some creative idea for you. Most of us crafters are pack rats at heart, picking up interesting things along the way, rarely knowing what they will become! It's such a pleasure to gather a few supplies and create some whimsical little decorations to gather on a small mirrored tray or on a crocheted doily… perhaps a group like this anchored by some sprigs of winter greenery?.. Have fun, be exuberant and make some playtime for yourself!